Interpretation of Lesya Ukrainka in Ukrainian Criticism: Controversies and Perspectives

Abstract

This paper analyses how the work of Lesya Ukrainka is criticised within the realist and modernist paradigms. Similarities in both models of interpretation are highlighted; and the lack of in-depth analysis of Lesya Ukrainka’s texts per se is pointed out. Also, it is noted that the critics tend to be too submissive to literary theories that are imposed on them. The author claims that the most promising research is that which can abandon traditional canons of interpretation of Lesya Ukrainka’s work with simultaneous explication of the sense of the Neo-romantic idea of “sovereignty” as a feature typical of each human being.